James Monroe Buckley

{{Infobox person

| name = James Monroe Buckley

| image = File:James Monroe Buckley.jpg

| alt = James Monroe Buckley

| caption = James Monroe Buckley

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| birth_date = {{Birth date|1836|12|16}}

| birth_place = Rahway, New Jersey

| death_date = {{Death date and age|February 10, 1920|December 16, 1836}}

| death_place = Morristown, New Jersey

| burial_place = Pine Hill Cemetery

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| occupation = {{flatlist|

Minister
doctor
author
editor

}}

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| spouse = Eliza Burns (m. 1864–1866)
Sarah Staples (m. 1874–1883)
Adelaide Hill (m. 1886–1910)

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}}

James Monroe Buckley (December 16, 1836 – February 10, 1920) was an American Methodist minister, doctor, author, and editor of the Christian Advocate.

Biography

James Monroe Buckley was born in Rahway, New Jersey on December 16, 1836 to John Buckley and his wife Abby, but his father, also a Methodist Episcopal minister, died soon after he was born.{{cite web |title=James Monroe Buckley |url=https://westphaliapress.org/2019/07/22/james-monroe-buckley/ |website=Westphalia Press |language=en |date=22 July 2019}}George P. Mains (1917). [http://divinityarchive.com/bitstream/handle/11258/2219/cu31924010117814.pdf James Monroe Buckley]. NY: The Methodist Book Concern. pp. 21-23. Buckley became a Methodist Episcopal minister in 1858, preaching several churches in New Hampshire, Detroit, Brooklyn, and Stamford. He received education from Pennington Seminary and Wesleyan University, although he withdrew after a year for health reasons and continued with private instructors. He later received honorary degrees from Wesleyan, Emory and Henry College, and Syracuse University.{{cite book |last1=Sackett |first1=William Edgar |last2=Scannell |first2=John James |title=Scannell's New Jersey First Citizens: Biographies and Portraits of the Notable Living Men and Women of New Jersey with Informing Glimpses Into the State's History and Affairs |date=1917 |publisher=J.J. Scannell |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EZVQAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22James+Monroe+Buckley%22&pg=PA73 |language=en}}{{cite book |title=Marquis Who's Who in America |date=1900 |publisher=Chicago, Marquis Who's Who |url=https://archive.org/stream/whoswhoinamerica02marq/whoswhoinamerica02marq_djvu.txt}}

Buckley served as a delegate to the General Conferences of the Methodist Episcopal Church from 1872 to 1912; a delegate Ecumenical conferences in London (1881), Washington (1891), and Toronto (1911); and a member and later President of the Methodist Episcopal Church's Board of Foreign Missions. He was elected editor of the Christian Advocate, then known as the New York Christian Advocate, in 1880 and served for over 30 years. He also wrote a number of books. He was known as a formidable debater and writer and passionately argued for causes he believed in.Mains (1917), pp. 122-141. "Dr. Buckley's editorial" in the Advocate was extremely influential, and it is said that many people would wait to see what he had to say on important matters before making up their own minds. According to one writer, he was "acclaimed the greatest debater in Methodism, if not in the nation."Schmidt 1999, [https://archive.org/details/gracesufficienth0000schm/page/214/mode/2up?q=%22Buckley%22 p. 214]. From 1872 to 1912, when he was a delegate in the General Conference, it was sometimes known as "Dr. Buckley in Session," and in one Conference he is said to have taken the floor seven hundred times.Schmidt 1999, [https://archive.org/details/gracesufficienth0000schm/page/212/mode/2up?q=%22Buckley%22 pp. 213-214].

Buckley advocated for what would eventually become the NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital in 1881 through his editorial work on the accidental death of an organist; and he served on its board for 35 years. Banker George I. Seney read his writing and was inspired to contribute land and assets worth over $410,000, and made building the hospital possible, which became the first Methodist hospital in the world.{{Cite news |last=Edwards |first=Russell |date=1973-02-25 |title=Future Social Events |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1973/02/25/archives/future-social-events-little-lambs-eat-ivy-restoration-in-the-cards.html |access-date=2022-07-18 |issn=0362-4331}} Buckley also served on various other organizational boards, including a number of other hospitals.

Buckley was vocal and influential in his opposition to women's rights, and was "one of the foremost opponents of both clergy and laity rights for women in the church" according to Jean Miller Schmidt.{{cite book |last1=Schmidt |first1=Jean Miller |title=Grace sufficient: a history of women in American Methodism, 1760-1939 |date=1999 |publisher=Abingdon Press |location=Nashville, TN |isbn=978-0-687-15675-7 |page=213 |url=https://archive.org/details/gracesufficienth0000schm/page/212/mode/2up}} He fought against allowing Anna Oliver to preach, saying "I am opposed to inviting any woman to preach before this meeting. If the mother of our Lord were on earth, I should oppose her preaching here."Schmidt 1999, [https://archive.org/details/gracesufficienth0000schm/page/188/mode/2up p. 188.] See also: [https://archive.org/details/gracesufficienth0000schm/page/192/mode/2up p. 193] He also wrote a book, The Wrong and Peril of Woman Suffrage, arguing against women's right to vote. He was known as "Captain of Conservatives" in the Methodist General Conference; and in 1888 he was part of the Committee on the Eligibility of Women, deciding whether or not women could be seated at the Conference, where he steered the committee to reject female delegates.[https://www.nyac.com/files/archives/250th+anniversary/biography+posters+final/buckley-james-monroe-bio-final.pdf "James Monroe Buckley: Newspaper Editor and Leading Opponent of Women’s Rights 1836-1920"]. New York Annual Conference. Schmidt notes that it was not until Buckley died in 1920 that women were allowed licenses to preach in the Methodist Episcopal church by the General Conference.Schmidt 1999, [https://archive.org/details/gracesufficienth0000schm/page/272/mode/ p. 273], [https://archive.org/details/gracesufficienth0000schm/page/332/mode/2up p. 333.] Buckley also debated publicly on the topic, including with Anna Howard Shaw, a fellow physician and the first ordained female Methodist minister, who had been ordained by the Methodist Protestant Church and was a leader of the women's suffrage movement.{{cite news |last1=Krulish |first1=Emalee |title=Chautauqua: 'The Loving Friend' to the Women's Rights Movement |url=https://medium.com/chautauqua-magazine/chautauqua-the-loving-friend-to-the-women-s-rights-movement-558a046552fd |publisher=Chautauqua Magazine |date=28 July 2020 |language=en}}

Buckley was married three times, with all three of his marriages ending upon the deaths of his wives, Eliza Burns (m. 1864-1866), Sarah Staples (m. 1874-1883), and Adelaide Hill (m. 1886-1910). Buckley died in Morristown, New Jersey on February 10, 1920, at 83 years old.[https://newspapers.library.in.gov/cgi-bin/indiana?a=d&d=RPD19200210.1.7&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-%22James+monroe+buckley%22------ "Methodist Editor dies in Morristown N. J."]. Richmond Palladium, Volume 45, Number 77, 10 February 1920.Schmidt 1999, [https://archive.org/details/gracesufficienth0000schm/page/272/mode/2up?q=%22Buckley%22 p. 273]. He was buried in Pine Hill Cemetery in Dover.{{cite web |title=Rev James Monroe Buckley (1836-1920) |url=https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/148598437/james-monroe-buckley |website=www.findagrave.com |language=en}}

Selected works

Two weeks in the Yosemite Valley (1872)
Christians and the theater (1875)
Oats or Wild Oats (1885)
The Land of the Czar and the Nihilist (1886)
Faith-healing, Christian science and kindred phenomena (1892)
Travels in three continents, Europe, Africa, Asia (1894)
A history of Methodists in the United States (1896)
The fundamentals and their contrasts (1906)
The Wrong and peril of woman suffrage (1909)
Theory and practice of foreign missions (1911)
Constitutional and parliamentary history of the Methodist Episcopal church (1912)

James Monroe Buckley

Biography

Selected works

References

Further reading